Brahmos II :- India’s Future Hypersonic Cruise Missile

by defenceupdate ·
Published March 19, 2016
· Updated October 14, 2017

Russia && India are apparently testing the scramjet air breathing engine on its new BrahMos-II hypersonic cruise missile as a prelude to this weapon’s first test flight in 2020.

Recently Russia successfully carried out the first test firing of a hyper sonic version of Brahmos missile in Russia. Russian sources indicated that the test was successful and the missile flew at the speed of Mach 6. The test carried out from a land-based testing range, which could be followed by multiple launches in coming days, said a Russian official to RT.com

This speed is over double that of the current operational version of BrahMos, BrahMos-I, which is in service with the armed forces.
Hypersonic weapons are missiles and aircraft capable of reaching speeds of Mach 5 and more – or five times the speed of sound. They are extremely difficult to intercept due to their overwhelming speed and maneuvering capabilities.

BrahMos-II will confer on India a major strategic advantage in mountain warfare against China. The missile is designed to select targets hidden behind a mountain range.

The hypersonic weapon’s immense destructive power will result from kinetic energy. An object striking a target at 6 Mach will generate 36 times the force of an object of the same mass striking the target at 1 Mach. This phenomenon makes hypersonic weapons well suited to attacking hardened or deeply buried targets such as bunkers or nuclear and biological-weapon storage facilities.

WHAT MAKES Brahmos 2 Aka ZIRCON LETHAL

The concept, though, is surprisingly simple. As the missile – or whatever vehicle the scramjet is attached to – accelerates through the air, the engine begins to suck in oxygen. Stored fuel, such as hydrogen, is then mixed with the oxygen and burned before being accelerated and pumped out through a nozzle.

“But If you ask the question, how hard is it? The answer is, it’s really hard”,It’s not a matter of simply taking a supersonic thing and flying it a little bit faster. The physics work against you, the temperatures get higher, everything really does get harder.”

Russia && India is developing a special and secret fuel formula to enable the BrahMos-II to exceed Mach 5.

WHEN WILL INDIA HAVE ITS OWN HYPERSONIC MISSILE

Russia may have taken the lead in developing a hypersonic missile, but India is not far behind. India is developing a second generation BrahMos-II missile is collaboration with Russia. The missile will use the same scramjet technology that Zircon has.

The BrahMos-II is expected to have a range of 600 km. The missile is expected to be ready for testing by 2020.